Kakicak — Banjar, Indonesia

Kakicak is a warm rice dessert from the Banjar repertoire of South Kalimantan: glutinous rice cooked down into a loose, sweet porridge, finished with warm coconut milk and a palm-sugar syrup, and sometimes topped with a spoonful of fermented rice or cassava for a light tang. It is reported as a market and home dessert among Banjar communities, served in small bowls alongside the wider range of kue sold at stalls and, in greater number, during the Ramadan cake markets of the region. It belongs to the same broad family as other Indonesian rice porridges sweetened with palm sugar and coconut milk, such as bubur ketan hitam. To prepare it, glutinous rice is soaked, then simmered in water with pandan leaf until it breaks down into a soft, spoonable porridge. Palm sugar is melted separately into a syrup, and coconut milk is warmed with a pinch of salt so it stays smooth rather than splitting. The porridge is served warm, ladled into bowls and finished at the table with the syrup and coconut milk poured over the top. Within the family of sweet rice porridges found across the Indonesian archipelago, this version is set apart mainly by the pairing with fermented cassava or rice, which is not part of every regional recipe, and by the two-part finish of syrup and coconut milk kept separate until serving rather than cooked together into the porridge itself.